I have a confession to make: All these years, I have not really been reading all my vintage marketing materials much — I have been looking at the pictures and kind of scanning text. I have soaked up a lotta, for sure, but now, I have started going back and reading… trying to pick up more of the wherefore and why-to of mid century design details. Along the way, I’m also discovering more rare and fascinating things that were, apparently, tried out, but didn’t really catch on, so were abandoned. Which made me remember, above: “Dental sinks.”
This question first came up a while ago when I posted about 1940s interior decorating style. (Note the carrera glass tile and high-contrast jazz-age look: A dead giveaway that it’s 1940s.) In her comment, Laura asked:
What a great article! I have one question though … in the very last image, do you have any idea what’s up with the big sink and the little sink? I’ve never seen anything like that before … wondering if this is a house for the three bears, and Mama Bear’s sink isn’t in the picture. LOL
When I was in the first grade in Sister Mary Meda’s class at St. Christopher’s in Carlsbad, California, I won a chocolate Easter bunny in a class talent competition for my rendition, with voices, of the story of The Three Bears. I was quite proud. And ate the whole messy melting bunny at the next recess. Anyway, here is what I told Laura about Baby Bear’s sink:
Back in the day, sink manufacturers tried to promote a smaller “dental sink”. I think this may have had to do with (1) the fact there generally was only one bathroom and (2) concerns about hygiene and spreading disease.
I think that if you were to find a small sink like this — and if it were matchy-matchy with your main sink — wouldn’t it make a fantastic addition to a period bathroom recreation? A fabulous conversation starter … and hey, useful, too, especially if you only had one bathroom. Readers: Let’s keep an eye out at Re-Store and salvage places to see if we can spot one. John from deabath.com, if you are reading this, I’d love to hear if you ever come across these.
Now that I have made a big deal about actually reading my piles and piles and piles of midcentury marketing materials, I must qualify by saying that this explanation of dental sinks doesn’t come from something definitive that I found all buried away. (I remembered them as a rare feature once I started spotting other oddities in my new wave of research.) But, I did see them called ‘dental sinks’ in the brochure that featured this photo. And the rest of the stuff in my hypotheses I’ve read about some place. I think that 2011 will be the year I really start taking notes and recording my sources, I guess.
Update: Dental sinks have “flushing rims”:
Reader Jocelyn sent me a link to this advertisement — it promotes the dental lavatory (aka, sink) as helping to relieving bathroom traffic congestion in the morning. This was the era of one-bathroom households, remember. Morever: Note that the ad says the dental sink has a flushing rim. Now I really need one of these! Thanks, Jocelyn!
Update: Second design of dental sink:
Above: Another design that we spotted! Spotted on page 21 of my 1949 Crane catalog.
I would love a dental sink…it makes perfect sense with todays hygiene issues. Alas, I cannot. My bathroom is way too small. I also fear that my mother, who is nuts, would mistake it for a bidet and we’d have to call the fire dept. to remove her umm… nether regions from the sink It would also be just another place for my 14 yr old daughter to comb her hair over…yuk! Maybe I need my own bathroom?
Interesting! I will check my health books and decorating books from that era and see if I find any mention of these.
In the second floor half bath of my 1949 cape is a dental sink…the only sink. The bath was originally shared by the home owner’s 2 daughters-jack and jill style-so it is not only incredibly tiny, it is hung low as well!!
Oh, I’m so excited! I hadn’t had time to go back to the post to see if you answered my question, and you ended up writing a whole blog post about it!
I feel quite special! And now that I’m looking at this picture more closely, I’m thinking it must be a “dental sink” that is in the downstairs powder room of my dad’s house in New Orleans! It’s a very small sink just like the one above, but white. When he had to remodel the downstairs after the flood following Katrina, he babied that sink like nobody’s business, only to have it slip out of his hands when he was reinstalling it. Fortunately the sink survived, but there’s a ding in the wall and a small bit of porcelain chipped from the upper left corner of the sink. He laughs, saying he tried to get his foot under the sink before it hit the floor, but the sink was just too fast.
Funny that Susan mentioned the bidet. I was thinking the same thing… a bidet for your mouth!
The 1980s colonial we’ve lived in for the past 15 years has two sinks in the master bathroom. We’ve become so accustomed to each having our own sink I wonder if my husband and I could ever share again if we ever move to our smaller “dream” home (a mid-century rancher). Maybe this would be a good compromise.
That would be awesome! It would be like a high pressure water fountain, like in the movie Finding Nemo, when the little girl in the dentist’s office breaks the rinse sink and the water squirts all over her face! LOL
I think families were much more lavy “communal” back in the day.
Esp. with one bath.
My house is lavy communal, because no one will go downstairs to use the half bath. We don’t take showers together tho’, that would be wrong! LOL
Shane,
My 6 brothers and I, all tossed in one bathrub.
My 6 brothers and I, all crowded around a sink.
My 6 brothers and I, all standing around a toilet.
You don’t see alot of that stuff anymore.
Dude! That’s crazy. I’d hate to clean THAT toilet after 6 boys peed in it at once! HA!
Well, it was more like “in the general area” !
When I was struggling to toilet-train my son, I asked a friend how she was doing with her son, who was the same age. She explained that he just went into the bathroom whenever his older brothers went. He copied his brothers, and she didn’t have to do anything. Sounded good to me!
Here is what I am thinking — the little sink could be used by one family member to brush their teeth while someone else washed their hands and/or face in the larger one. That would have been a way for more than one person to use the bathroom at once.
Also, I note that there is no mirror over the small sink which should discourage brushing hair, washing the face etc.
They may have been the recusor (sp?) to the double sink so beloved today.
You know, people used to fill up the basin of the regular sink and use it to wash their faces, shave, etc. (and make warm water for these tasks when there were two separate faucets for H + C). You wouldn’t necessarily want to do that with people brushing their teeth and spitting, so a dental sink seems perfect. And today we don’t have Christina Crawford standing around with a can of Old Dutch cleanser waiting to scrub everything to a fare-thee-well, now, do we?
I think you hit the nail on the head! It makes so much sense. Although I don’t see a toothbrush holder in the wall… Perhaps the sink was a novelty for little kids?
I tend to think (1) Hygiene – huge concern over spreading germs back in the day, before there was even a polio vaccine, and (2) making the only bathroom in the house work harder. I don’t think we really saw the proliferation of two-bathroom homes until the 1960s.
I DO see a toothbrush holder- its mostly cut off at the edge of the photo, though.
Holy Cow! I was just in an antique store last week and found one of these tiny sinks! Wish I had room for it in the Bath
I also found one of those early ’50s floor heater boxes that hook directly to the gas line….hmm….I have a feeling that will be coming home for the bathroom redo tomorrow…..(Pam will hate that, because it’s GOTTA be dangerous w/it’s own GAS LINE into the bathroom! LOL)
Ok, looking at this information, I think the builder took the dental sink that was to go next to our master bath sink with chrome legs and stuck it in our powder room (like Laura’s fathers house has) and stretched their fixture supply a bit further by doing so! Ah well, whatever the case, it’s darned cute and we like them both very much and aren’t swapping them out. Built to last and still shiny.
my aunt and uncle had a tiny powder room under the stairs in their “detached rowhouse” in st. louis. the hand sink was almost certainly a dental sink as described above. sadly they don’t live there anymore so i can’t get a photo or anything.
incidentally (pun!) we are remodeling our ranch bathroom(s) and will likely put in a tiny powder room. my wife has found some (european?) hand sinks online that are very compact, not unlike these here dental sinks.
So, Johnny-
I have to ask: is your name in honor of the 40′s radio show, where that rascal Detective Johnny Dollar is such a genius at padding his expense account?
Could it be possible that this sink was used to care for dentures? I know that many more people had dentures/bridges/etc. 50 years ago and I seem to remember that they required brushing and soaking. I may be offbase on this but that is what came to mind- even though it doesn’t say *denture* sink.
I know at my house, I would like the sink where the kids and hubby brush their teeth to be BIGGER not smaller. I always find toothpaste on the wall, up the sides of the sink, etc.! LOL
Also…are those candles on that sink ledge? I thought that that was a 1990s and later *thing*.
Where can I get some of those cute towels? Love those.
OK, maybe not a candle, perhaps a cellulose bobby pin box??? What do you all think that is??
I think they are talc and perfume containers.
Pam, I think I have seen one, but not in it’s original bathroom. We looked at a rental with THE smallest bathroom I think I have ever seen, there was a tiny sink (dental sink) that was across from the toilet. When I say across, I mean you can wash your hands while you are seated on the toilet, if you have baby hands. Charming eh? Well, we didn’t rent that place I think mainly because of the minuscule bathroom, although I don’t remember anything else about the house.
I found mention of a dental/ spit sink at another old house forum I belong too . Knew it looked familiar lol
http://www.thathomesite.com/forums/load/oldhouse/msg0814110311537.html
A dental sink? That’s what it’s called! We have one. In our 1/2 bath in our 1952 house. It too is in the smallest bathroom ever- lets just say an airplane bathroom has more space!
Honestly Pam. Your post is interesting, but this log of comments from your viewers just cracked me up…I just enjoyed reading everyone’s memories and reactions! What a nice break from the work week!
Speaking of fixtures in bathrooms, why haven’t urinals ever been installed in home bathrooms?
Friend of mine rented a house years ago that had his and hers bathrooms, and one had a urinal in it. I’ve never seen or heard of it before or since but I think it would be cool.
I have often thought the same thing…..Until I realised that many women think that men SIT on them!!!!
LOL!!
Bath fixtures have come a long way:
The Mens Room in 1969 Fenway Park had a double sided “trough” with a 4ft high separating wall down the center. Not for the shy. : )
I knew a family growing up that had a urinal in the “boys’ bathroom”. With four sons it made perfect sense.
Thanks for posting this, it brings back memories!
My grandparents have a house in Germany that’s almost 100 years old, but it seems that the bathroom was updated in the 40s or 50s. The house is adorable! Exposed brick, a wrought iron spiral staircase, wood panel ceilings — I love it.
There’s only the one bathroom, and it has two LIME GREEN sinks! One normal and one little dental sink side by side.
When I lived with my them, my grandpa would always shave in the big sink, and I’d use the dental sink to brush my teeth! I was taught to use the different sinks for different things (Little sink — brushing teeth; big sink — sponge bathing, shaving, washing hands, things like that.)
I know most of the old houses there still have original fixtures like this, and it’s so great to see. I just wish I had a pictures! Next time I take a trip over there again
I’ve just stumbled across this blog today and I’m so glad I did!
I have a sink like this in our 1959 powder room, only it is a corner sink. Some of the finish has worn off (that was me developing film in college.) I’m always looking for a replacement. My neighbor put one (in very good shape, but not a corner model) in her trash and I of course snapped it up. My plumber said that you can no longer get the fixtures for it. The fixtures look just like the one in the picture. I’m holding onto the sink, though, just in case.
Hello all;
Yes, this was one of those things that really didn’t catch on all that well. We see them occasionally, and they do tend to leave quickly as they make a great sink for those 1/2 baths. Yes, the faucets are not made anymore (especially for the Standard one) but they often can be repaired/re-trimmed. The really cool ones are the flushing rim ones……. kinda like a mini toilet
Thank you, John from deabath.com! Send me pics next time you get one in, okay? And, I have no idea what you’re talking about “flushing rim” faucets?
Hi Pam;
Flushing rim sinks. Imagine the rim of a toilet (you know, where the water comes jetting out around the sides) grafted onto a porcelain sink. This is a true “dental” sink, and these are rarely found in a home….
Speaking of urinals, when are you going to touch on the Women’s urinal made by Standard back in the ’50′s?
I know…… Eeeeewwww!!!!!!!
John
I had an “Ah Hah!” moment after I read John’s message. I remember being at the dentist and told to spit into the little sink after having my teeth cleaned (or had fillings put in). The water was always running around and around the inside of the sink, so when I spit into it, it was quickly and cleanly flushed down the drain. No little plastic suction tubes that are used today. Yes — a “Dental Sink!” Any senior dentists out there to explain further?
The vintage sinks we’re talking about were in houses.
How cute, if you had small children, to install one of these at child height. they could have their own sink to use without standing on a stool.
Don’t forget that some powder rooms also had tiny sinks because it was to wash your hands only and had nothing to do with dental hygiene. These little powder room sinks are still made and installed today in modern powder rooms but take their origins from the 40s and 50s powder rooms.
I have seen a few of these in the tiny bathrooms of old bars in St. Louis. I also think that I saw a corner version like McMeg was talking about. It was in the bathroom at one of the really old Maid-Rite “loose meat” burger places in Quincy, IL. That was the first time I saw one. I thought it was funny how small it was and neat that it was a corner sink.
Did you notice the ad for the Youngstown steel kitchen cabinets in one of the earlier pages of this issue of Life?